Once Upon a Warehouse
by frankplaysaccordion
Summary: Claudia Donovan and Steve Jinks are sent to a small town in Maine to investigate some strange pings. What they would find there was far beyond the usual snag, bag, and tag.


**Author's note: This is a Warehouse 13 and OUAT crossover that I have been thinking about for awhile so I decided to go for it and post my first fan fic. I kept wondering if Storybrooke would show up on the Warehouse 13 computers. The wonderful Jane Espenson is involved with both of these shows so they just seem to go together. **

**This takes place just after season 1 of OUAT after the curse was lifted and Mr. Gold released magic back into Storybrooke. In Warehouse 13 this is just after the start of season 3 where Jinksy and Claudia become partners and buddies. **

**Disclaimer: I own none of this even thought I really wish I did. I just wanted to contribute to a great community of fans that have provided me with hours of great reading. **

* * *

**Chapter 1: Welcome to the Edge of Civilization**

_Rattle. Rattle. Squawk! Rattle. Rattle. Squawk! _

She could hear her Farnsworth going off. What time is it? Why was Artie or whoever calling so early? Why did it sound like that? Where was the rest of her bed?

Claudia slowly opened her eyes against the bright sun. Instead of her Ziggy Stardust poster she saw a brick wall. Quickly she sat up and that was her first mistake of the day. Her head throbbed as she whipped around to see bars and a room with a few desks. Was this a police station?

She looked around after rubbing her temples to release the pressure building up. On the desks were old, wow, very old CRT monitors with huge cables snaking down to enormous CPU's on the floor. Was this a police station in the 80's? Even Artie updated more often than this place.

Storybrooke, Maine Sheriff's Department the wall above the coffee machine said. Oh. Now it was coming back. Last night came back in pieces. There had been a scuffling of feet and hands. Shouting. Steve!

She stood up even though her body really didn't want to and moved to the bars. Steve was not in the next cell over. Where was he? She remembered him calling her name vaguely. There was pavement and a dumpster. An alley.

Her Farnsworth lay on a table near her cell. She reached to grab it, but her fingertips just grazed it and pushed it farther away as she noticed the large bandage on her arm. Footsteps came from the direction of the hall just as she tried to peak under the bandage.

"Oh, you're awake." It was the blonde sheriff carrying a tray of coffees and a bag with grease spots.

"Yeah. I am. Neat. So why am I awake in here?" Claudia leaned against the bars as nonchalantly as she could without bumping her arm. "And why don't I just find my friend be awake somewhere else?"

The sheriff paused in the middle of the station looking like she was choosing her next words carefully. After a moment she walked over the bars. "Look, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Look, Sheriff… what was it? Swan? I don't think it's a good idea for you to keep me in here. Where is Steve?" Claudia was already done with this. She had wanted to stay calm like a "senior agent" should, but she did not like being locked up without an idea where Steve was.

"He's ok. For now you are going to stay in there. It's for…everybody's protection," the sheriff said as she put the coffees and bag onto the table and slipped the Farnsworth into the pocket of her red leather jacket.

* * *

_Last week_

"Slug bug! No backs!"

"Ow! You can't do that to a sleeping person. There are rules to this game." Steve rubbed his shoulder as he moved his seat up. "Are we finally here?"

"Yes. Welcome to The End of Civilization, Maine. I believe the locals call it Storybrooke. You know Pete and Myka get to go to Graceland and check out the mojo in Elvis' hot tub, but we get to come here. To Maine. Where there is a ping somewhere, maybe. Or it may just be a glitch and here we are in Maine. This isn't even where Stephen King lives," she said as she pulled in front of a diner.

"This may not be some old, dead rock star's hot tub, but it is rather quaint," Steve said as he peered at the window.

"I do love quaint. Look at me. I'm all about the quaint. Right now I feel like eating a quaint breakfast in this quaint diner in quaint Maine." She slipped out of the car and stretched her legs. She hoped this wasn't all of Main Street. Ha. Maine Street. Saving that one for later.

"You know this isn't a step back. Artie trusts you. He said he had been getting weird, sorta pings all over this area for awhile, but last week it sorta pinged a lot harder. He just wants to make sure there isn't an artifact doing it," Steve said standing and stretching his back.

"But getting Typhoid Mary's knife was such a great snag. We don't even know if there is anything here to snag unless he wants me to snag, bag and tag the whole town."

"That would be a great snag though. Beats what I am sure is a very used hot tub." Steve smirked over the roof of the car.

"This is true. Lets do this." Claudia started walking towards the diner.

"Hey, just a suggestion for the 'senior agent', but maybe we should check in with Artie to see if he has narrowed down where we should be looking."

"Oh, yes. Of course. Good catch, not senior agent. I was hoping you would notice that," Claudia said as she flipped open her Farnsworth. Steve rolled his eyes and leaned against the car.

"Yes, what is it?" Artie barked over the speaker as his face appeared on the screen grainier than usual.

"Well, good morning to you to, sir. We just got to Storybrooke. Any luck narrowing down where we should be looking from everywhere in this part of the state to something more specific?" Claudia snapped back.

"I was up all night working out the finer points of just how much of the plumbing in Graceland is an artifact with Myka, but, yes, I did manage to make your job easier at the same time," Artie snapped right back. "Last week's ping was in the forest…" The screen flickered and the speaker squealed.

"Artie? Hello? Having a little trouble here," Claudia said as she twisted the tuner on the Farnsworth.

"Claudia? What was that? Anyway the last big ping was in the forest, but it appears to have spread out over… town. The one before that… but… from the hospital," Artie said as the screen and speaker continued to flicker and squeal before going black.

"Ok. Weird. Something is definitely interfering with the Farnsworth. I guess there actually might be something here. How about we go in and question some locals?" Claudia said as she snapped the Farnsworth shut.

"Lead the way, but remember, Columbo, people in small towns don't like outsiders asking a lot of questions," Steve said as he slipped on his black jacket.

"What year do you think this is? We'll be fine." Claudia waved her hand nonchalantly as she walked up the pathway to the diner.


End file.
